NY Mets Monday Morning GM: 3 lessons David Stearns can take from the LA Dodgers

Predictably, the Los Angeles Dodgers are 2025 World Series champions. Even if it felt inevitable, it’s the first time since the 1970s for a National League team to repeat as champion. No one in baseball had done it since the New York Yankees won three straight from 1998-2000 with the last coming with a victory over the New York Mets.

The Dodgers remain the gold standard in baseball even if they have the edge in several places. Weather, history, the attraction for Japanese players, and the endless wealth of ownership all play a role in helping to make them the team to emulate.

David Stearns, take note. These three lessons have been given out for free by the Dodgers in recent years.

1) Plan for your super bullpen to fail

The Dodgers had a pretty lousy bullpen this year. Their 4.27 ERA for relievers was ranked 20th in a tie with the Philadelphia Phillies. Several high-priced additions, including Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates, felt like busts.

How did the Dodgers overcome it? They barely did a thing at the trade deadline. Their 3.69 ERA from starters, ranking 5th, helped even things out and made their pitching staff far better than many of the numbers say.

What really pushed them over the top was how well their starting pitchers did in the postseason in a variety of roles. Yoshinobu Yamamoto had an all-time great playoff run with Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow helping pick up some of the pieces around him. Roki Sasaki turned a disappointing regular season into a more memorable one by tossing 10.2 innings in the playoffs and surrendering a single run.

It takes a village to raise a child. To get the pitching job done in the playoffs, the Dodgers showed it only takes a couple of really good pitchers.

The Mets approached this year much differently. Seeing their pitching go from a strength to weakness mid-year, they attempted to load up on relievers rather than add a starting pitcher of significance. It failed miserably with no backup plan in place when the starters continued to scuffle and many of the midseason bullpen additions crashed.